


Troublesome

by SpiderTeen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: I dunno I think it's good, That's it, daughter of Sirius Black, just a Sirius Black daughter fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-02-23 06:41:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 16,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23873971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpiderTeen/pseuds/SpiderTeen
Summary: Follow Emiliana Black through her second year as she tries to deal with her friends' drama, her dad escaping, and someone that she looked up to like a brother for a while betraying her.
Relationships: Astoria Greengrass & Original Female Character(s), Ginny Weasley & Original Female Character(s), Harry Potter & Original Female Character(s), Hermione Granger & Original Female Character(s), Luna Lovegood & Original Female Character(s), Remus Lupin & Original Female Character(s), Sirius Black & Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 8





	1. One - Classes

“Hi. I’m Emiliana Black, and I’m the daughter of a blood traitor and a Voldemort supporter. Surprise, surprise, they’re the same person. Never knew my mum (her name was Patria Potter and she died while giving birth to me), but my dad’s Sirius Black, Azkaban attendee all year round, except for recently. I started Hogwarts in the Slytherin house last year, and my friends consist of Astoria Greengrass, Ginny Weasley, (so far) Hermione Granger, and Luna Lovegood.”

The Black heir sighed and threw her quill across the room haphazardly, causing Astoria to dodge the oncoming writing utensil by barely an inch. “Hey! Watch out, Emi!”� The girl sighed and rubbed her hand over her face.

“Sorry, Greengrass. Just can’t seem to get into the writing feeling.” Astoria scoffed and pulled the girl out of her chair and towards the common room. 

“Come on. We have to get to Potions. I’ve heard it’s even worse this year than last.” She grinned widely and stood up while holding her hand out. The other girl accepted and looped her arm around Astoria’s as they started out of the common room and down the hall.

“Ready to be late?”� Emiliana clicked her tongue and snapped dramatically.

“Fashionably late, sweetie.” She snapped her fingers again, although this time in a Z pattern that she and Remus had seen someone do on muggle television. Astoria raised an eyebrow and laughed at her friend’s antics. The two girls giggled at each other’s summer stories and jokes all the way to class.

-

After double potions, Emiliana slid into her seat in Defense Against the Dark Arts and groaned as her head hit the desk. Remus chuckled at the girl and shook his head in exasperation. She was so much like her father it was surreal. Lupin walked over to the girl and pinched the nape of her neck lightly, making the girl move her head up and rub the back of her neck. “Ow. Jeez, Uncle Moony.”

“Oh come on, it wasn’t that painful. And remember, I’m Professor Lupin here.”

“Yeah yeah. Tell me, how did you survive seven years of this?” Emiliana wrinkled her nose and Lupin laughed again before moving to the front of the room as the other students started to arrive.

“I had some good friends.” He smiled and the girl looked down at her hands before sharing a quick smile with her uncle. The professor turned to address the class and smiled brightly at his second year students. “Alright children, today you’ll be needing your wands and nothing else. Follow me please.” Emiliana shot a confused look his way before shrugging and grabbing her wand. The class followed him to the teacher’s lounge, an odd place to be, but a respectable one nonetheless. Emiliana looked around at her classmates as they filed in, trying to find her Gryffindor best friend. She found Ginny across the room and walked over, taking big strides to get away from the other students.

“Ginny! How was your summer?” The girl knew that her friend had gone through some terrible trauma in the year before, but she was determined to focus on the positives and be a good friend. “I heard that you went to Egypt. How was Bill? Are you still having nightmares? I can make some of that sleeping potion from last year if you want.”

“Woah! Slow down, Pip.” The red-head chuckled and gave a small smile. “My summer was fine, Egypt was great, Bill’s still Bill, yes I’m still having nightmares but they’re better now and I found a way to deal with them, and the sleeping potion is only to be used in emergencies from here on out.” The girl’s eyes twinkled and she hugged her friend. “I missed you. Now we can focus on me later. What about you? How are you dealing with… your dad being loose.” She said the last bit in a hushed tone, and Emiliana’s face turned stone cold.

“Not now. I’ll tell you and Luna later.” The three girls had bi-weekly meet-ups in the library, the one place where all three houses could sit together without being heckled. Ginny squeezed her friend’s hand and nodded, the two turning back to Remus as he began to teach the lesson.

“Hello class. Today we’ll be focusing on bogarts! So put your books away and grab your wands! Now, I want you to practice this spell with me. Riddikulus.” The class repeated after him. “Good! Now, focus on your worst fear, and try to make it hilarious.” 

Emiliana looked around the room and saw everyone concentrating with their eyes closed on their worst fears. She knew Ginny’s, Tom Riddle, but hers was a bit trickier. Emi sucked in a small breath before closing her eyes and imagining how she would make it funny. Then she got in line. Emi focused on her breathing and with each person her heart got a little bit faster. Ginny went and a male that Emi immediately identified as Tom Riddle appeared in front of her. He smiled cruelly and she cast the spell, putting him in a gigantic ball gown complete with princess hair and birds flying around him. By the time Emi got up to the front her heart was racing as all eyes focused on the girl. 

She rolled the wand in her hand, took a breath in, and waited for her boggart to take form. A piece of paper appeared in midair and everyone in the class gasped as Sirius Black’s Wanted poster hovered in front of them. Emi cast her wand up before anyone could make the connection and yelled “Riddikulus” as loud as she could. The poster immediately got put through a shredder and turned into bright, sparkly ribbons. It wasn’t funny to Emi, more like relieving, but the rest of the class didn’t seem to think so. 

Laughter spilled out of every Gryffindor and Slytherin in the room as Emi spiraled into nervous giggles and moved out of the line and over to Ginny, who rubbed circles on her hands while humming a lullaby that her mother used to sing to her. Emi calmed down and sent an appreciative smile over to her friend. Class ended sooner than she would’ve preferred, and she set off towards Charms with Luna.

-

“Hey babe.” Emi gave a sloppy salute towards her other best friend as the class filed in. She draped her legs onto the other girl’s chair and smirked lazily. “Seat’s taken, sweets.”� Luna smiled in the way that she always did and sat down anyways, making Emiliana whisper “ow”� repeatedly under her breath before moving her legs and causing the Ravenclaw to fall onto the chair hard.

“That was not ideal.”

“Neither was my birth, but here we are.” Emi prided herself on being the only one to be able to catch the Lovegood off guard, so whenever the girl blinked twice and hid a laugh behind her hand, Emi knew that she’d won. Luna’s eyes sparkled with their normal curiosity and she tilted her head fondly. Emiliana winked at the girl and placed her legs on Luna’s lap.

“I missed you over the summer. You don’t write enough.” Emi barked a laugh, her first true one that morning, and smiled at the girl as Flitwick started to pass out feathers.

“I try. You know how I get distracted. But now we’re back and we can talk all we want! Tell you what? How about we ambush Ginny at lunch?” Luna started to nod before she shook her head.

“I have to look for my clothes.” Emi wrinkled her nose in and ran a hand through her short curls in distaste.

“Do they still do that? That’s so sucky. I’ll help you look after classes. I would during lunch, but I’m really hungry, and Gryffindor house always has the best pudding.” Luna shrugged and they continued on like that, the one girl chattering on and on while the other nodded and occasionally interjected with an insightful comment or question.

-

Emi arrived at lunch feeling rather peckish. She walked over to the teachers’ table and tapped on the place in front of Remus. He sighed deeply and closed his book, giving the girl his attention. “So, can I ask a random and totally hypothetical question, Uncle Moony?” She laced sugar into her tone and batted her eyelashes as Remus gave another long sigh and a pained smile.

“Completely hypothetical, correct?”

“Completely.”

“Then I see no harm in asking.”

“What if I were to sit at the Gryffindor table?”

“You’re sure that this is hypothetical?”

“Completely.”

“You’d get detention. Probably from Mcgonagall, seeing as you infiltrated her table.”

“Thanks, Uncle Moony!” She was already halfway to Gryffindor table. She sat down between Ginny and Hermione, and fell into an easy conversation, which then quickly became a challenge to see what ridiculous things the girl could do with her metamorphmagus powers.

Mcgonagall appeared behind her at the table while she was making the two girls crack up by changing her face into incredibly exaggerated versions of famous people. “I don’t suggest that you do that too much, Miss Black, your face could get stuck. I’ll see you for detention tonight, 7:00 sharp. Don’t be late.”

Emiliana stood up and saluted the teacher, eyes sparkling. “Yes, ma’am! Thank you ma’am!” She yelled, causing Mcgonagall to hit the girl on the head lightly with the scroll in her hand before returning to the teachers’ table. Emi laughed and sat back down, changing her hair to a light purple until her friends noticed. 

But there are always consequences to your actions, and now everyone in the Great Hall was aware that there was a Slytherin at Gryffindor table. Emiliana became aware of her mistake when someone brushed past her roughly and shoved a crumpled up paper right next to her plate, and she shoved it into her pocket before either of her friends could see. “Jerk.”

Ron (who was next to Hermione) looked up from his food and shrugged. “Maybe he’s mad that you’re sitting at his table. Harry shrugged and nodded, agreeing with his friend. Emi stared at the two of them and rolled her eyes.

“No duh.” They both shrugged again, making the three girls fall into uncontrollable giggles.

-

When she was finally alone, Emiliana opened her secret note under the table, making sure to hide it from prying eyes.

The note read:

“6 pm. Library. Tomorrow. Don’t be late.” 

Emi felt her breath catch in her throat as she folded the paper and put it into her robes carefully, hands shaking. She let out a shaky breath, plastered a smile onto her face, and walked to her next class as she felt the paper growing heavier in her pocket.


	2. Two - Fat Lady

Emiliana arrived at the Transfiguration classroom after a brief chat with Lupin, and a scolding on how she shouldn’t get detention because she was better than that and blah, blah, blah. She stepped into the classroom and blew out a puff of air before taking a seat in the front row and playing with her hair, which she had changed to a dark black. It hung around her shoulders and was slightly wavy. McGonagall stepped into the classroom and blinked hard when Emi looked at her, before taking a place at her desk and looking like she had just eaten a Bertie Bott’s Bean and she couldn’t decide what flavor it was. “Hello Miss Black. It’s nice to see that you arrived on time.” She opened her mouth like she wanted to say more but stopped herself and waved her wand at the stack of papers by the door. Emiliana shrugged and pulled her quill as she awaited further instructions. “You’ll be signing these letters in my name, and then handing them back for me to check the signature.” Emi blinked and looked at the teacher skeptically before shrugging and moving onto the first letter, her reference beside her. It was a rather mild punishment for Mcgonagall, but she’d learned from Remus to not rock the boat when it came to this woman. She set to work, and the two worked silently for a good 15 minutes before Emiliana remembered who she was.

“Professor? If you don’t mind me asking,” she waited for the nod of approval to keep talking. “What was my Uncle like as a schoolboy?” McGonagall narrowed her eyes in suspicion but answered the question anyways.

“Well he was an interesting student, but incredibly brilliant and well-behaved in all ways.” Emi almost laughed, but kept quiet and continued to write random things on the school lists as the teacher continued on. Luckily, they were all to returning students, so everyone would know that something was wrong. She wrote “an ostrich” on every single book list and then signed Mcgonagall’s name as normal. She found her letter and wrote a small smiley in the corner as well as on Ginny’s and Luna’s before turning them in and smiling at the teacher. Mcgonagall sighed and waved the girl away. She knew that there was obviously something wrong with the letters, but at the moment she could use some Black mischief in her hallways.

-

Emiliana woke up the next morning before her roommates and stared at the mirror as normal. She experimented with different hair styles before settling on her normal white curls piled on top of her head with shorter sides. She buttoned up her shirt and tucked most of it into her skirt, just leaving a corner in the front out. She pulled outwards at the poor button-up to make it look pouffier and placed her tie over her shirt as usual, not bothering to knot it in any way. She added her favorite lipgloss and clasped her yin-yang choker around her neck. Something was still missing, but Emi couldn’t figure out what it was. She unbuttoned her shirt and then re-buttoned it and moved sections of her hair, but nothing felt right. She pouted for a minute before heading downstairs and towards breakfast.

It was at lunch that she realized what was missing.

She shot up from her table, shouted “Shoes!”, and ran back to her dorm, leaving lots of people confused and Remus shaking his head.

Emiliana came back with a pair of black heels and continued through the day, doing her homework and hanging out with Ginny and Luna, growing increasingly worried about 6 o’clock that evening.

-

When the time finally arrived, Emiliana grabbed her biggest book (a muggle one called Les Miserables that happened to be one of her favorites), and headed to the library.

When the metamorphmagus got there the only person that she could see was Madam Pince, who was looking at her very suspiciously. She opened her book and started to read to distract herself and make the librarian give her some space. Thirty minutes had passed before she finally stood up and walked around to find who she was supposed to meet. Suddenly, she got swept off of her feet and pulled behind a shelf, a hand covering her mouth so that she didn’t scream. 

Emi was pulled back behind a shelf and before her mind could even catch up with what was going on, she was being shoved against the wall and held there by a strong pair of hands. “Well, well, well. It’s the slimy little snake slithered her way into our precious table and tried to pretend to be nice.” Mclaggen jeered and his goonies chuckled mindlessly.

“That’s a lot of big words for someone for who I thought had such a small brain. Although you do have a humongous head, so that might be it.” The Slytherin smirked at the older Gryffindor and batted her eyelashes innocently. He growled and shoved her further into the wall, making her shoulders ache. She cooed at the male. “Aw, you actually think that you’re tough.” This was a bad idea. Emi now knows that this was a bad idea because she suddenly found herself unable to make sound and started to re-think her response. 

-

Emiliana made her way to the closest safe place, around an hour after the boys left. She climbed to the top of the stairs slowly and collapsed as they moved to where she wanted to go. She groaned when she looked up and saw the huge crowd in front of the Gryffindor portrait. The slytherin pushed her way through and found Harry, Ron, and Hermione in the front. “What’s going on?” Harry did a double take and then shrugged.

“We don’t know. What are you doing here? And what happened to your face?” Emi waved him off, not wanting to confront that just yet.

“Doesn’t matter. Here, I’m short, you’re tall-ish. Let me up.”

“What?”

“Let me on your shoulders, Gryffin-boy.”

Harry shrugged and knelt down so that the shorter girl could climb on. She wobbled a little bit and grabbed onto his ears as he stood up. “Easy! I only have two of ‘em.” Emi snickered and patted the boy on the top of his head.

“Don’t worry- woah.”

“What? What is it?” That was Ron, who had just realized that the slytherin was there.

“The fat lady, she’s...”

“Gone.” This was Ginny, who had just arrived. Dumbledore had also arrived from Percy’s calls and Emi got off of Harry’s shoulders as the headmaster walked past them to assess the damage.

“We’ll need to find her. Professor McGonagall, please go to Mr. Filch at once and tell him to search every painting in the castle for the Fat Lady.” Emi whipped around to find Lupin and Snape right next to her, McGonagall close by. She sucked in a breath and puffed her cheeks out, praying that her uncle and the professor were too distracted to notice her. It didn’t work and Remus bit his tongue as he stared at the girl icily. He gave her a glare before turning back to the headmaster, the message clear: We’ll talk about this later. Suddenly, a voice that got on the nerves of everyone in the castle, except for Emi, Fred, and George, started to speak. 

“You’ll be lucky!” Peeves swooped down and hovered over the group of students. He spotted Emi and tugged her curls before moving back closer to Dumbledore.

“What do you mean, Peeves?” Everyone was looking at the poltergeist now and he changed his voice to be as respectful as a poltergeist could. Even he wouldn’t be rude to Dumbledore.

“Ashamed, your Headship, sir. Doesn’t want to be seen. She’s a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between trees. Crying something dreadful. Poor thing.” He tacked the last part on to sound at least a little sympathetic, but he failed miserably.

“Did she say who did it?” Emi got a sinking feeling in her stomach and squeezed Harry’s hand tightly, who looked at her with a concerned and confused expression.

“Oh yes professerhead. He got very angry when she wouldn’t let him in, you see.” Emi’s breath got stuck in her throat and she took a small step away from Peeves. He searched the crowd for her and grinned maniacally at her. “Nasty temper that Sirius Black has, ain’t that right, little miss.” Emi had gone at least three shades paler and not due to her metamorphmagus powers. Her eyes started back and forth in fear as Gryffindor house waited for Peeves to finish. “You would know, with him being your daddy and everything.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally! A PLOT! I guess I was wrong about the whole "the other chapters won't be as long" thing. Oh well


	3. Chapter 3

Emi was whisked away as the rest of the students filed into the Great Hall. She followed Lupin to his office in a daze and said nothing as Dumbledore filled him in on what he was going to do. She was supposed to stay isolated from the rest of the students for the remainder of the weekend and then sit away from the other students until they figured out that she wasn’t a threat. Lupin nodded along with whatever he was saying but didn’t really want to listen. As soon as the Headmaster was gone, he grabbed a wet washcloth and started to clean her face off. She was seated on one of the desks and had her head tilted downwards. When Lupin lifted her chin she had glistening streaks all the way down her face. Her eyelashes had tears like dewdrops resting on them and her eyes were unfocused and cloudy. Remus smiled softly at the girl and wiped away the tears rolling down her face as he cleaned blood that had trickled down from her cheekbone.

“I always thought that he was innocent.” Her voice was ragged and careful, like someone who was afraid to step on a tile in fear that it would drop them to their death would sound. Remus paused for a second and looked down before looking back at the girl.

“I know you did.”

“He just, he seemed so carefree in those pictures that I saw.” She choked back a sob and swiped angrily at her tears. “I don’t like crying. I shouldn’t cry. I hate crying.”

“I know.” Lupin said softly and walked over to a small sink in the corner to wring out the towel. “Can you tell me something?”

“Hm?”

“Why weren’t you at dinner?” Emi stiffened and looked down in distaste. “I just need to know so that you can have an alibi. So that the teachers don’t think that you were helping him into the castle.” The Slytherin whipped her head up and glared at her Uncle. “I don’t think that you did. I just need an alibi.”

Emi stared at her hands for a minute before sighing softly and playing with a ring on her right hand. “I was in the library. Pince can cover for me.” Remus watched her for a second and nodded, knowing that she was withholding information but not wanting to get into it at the moment. He waved his wand and a blow up mattress appeared with five blankets. The girl smiled at her uncle and gave him a hug. He hugged back and traced his thumb along her cheekbone, grimacing when she winced.

“We’ll talk about this,” He waved a hand over her face, motioning to her cut and black eye. “In the morning. Go to sleep.” She nodded and climbed into bed as Remus climbed upstairs to his room. Neither of them planned on sleeping that night.

-

The next morning Emi hid under her covers and pretended to be asleep when it was time for her to eat. Remus had brought her favorite breakfast up to the classroom and placed it next to her, but it remained untouched until lunch. Harry came by to see if she was alright with Ron and Hermione, but she didn’t respond then either, and Lupin told them that they should go before they got detention. When they asked why, Lupin said that they weren’t allowed to be around her until the week started and Emi could swear that she heard them talking about how it was so unfair after they left.

That made her smile. 

When Monday finally came, every single person avoided her in the halls except for Ginny, Luna, Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Even Astoria was avoiding her, which felt like a blow to the chest. All she heard in the halls were theories about how her father snuck into Hogwarts. Some were ridiculous and others were downright stupid, but nothing felt right to the girl. To make things worse, the first quidditch match was vastly approaching and so was the full moon. But, Emi was finally allowed to sleep in the Slytherin dormitory and some kids started to talk to her again as the hype of her father died down.

That was nice.

-

Emi spent most of her time in the library, steering clear of the potions aisle at all costs. She tried to laugh with Ginny at the ridiculousness of Sir Cadogan, but seeing as her dad was the one who caused him to be there, it just got caught in her throat. She went down to watch Harry play in the stands with Madam Hooch, and would yell words of encouragement up to the team, which caused Oliver to pull her aside and ask if she was a spy. That was the first time that she’d actually laughed in days, and she gave him a wink before looping her arm around Harry and walking back up to the castle.

-

Emi spent most of her time in the library, steering clear of the potions aisle at all costs. She tried to laugh with Ginny at the ridiculousness of Sir Cadogan, but seeing as her dad was the one who caused him to be there, it just got caught in her throat. She went down to watch Harry play in the stands with Madam Hooch, and would yell words of encouragement up to the team, which caused Oliver to pull her aside and ask if she was a spy. That was the first time that she’d actually laughed in days, and she gave him a wink before looping her arm around Harry and walking back up to the castle.

In the locker room at the last practice, Oliver announced that Gryffindor was to play Hufflepuff instead of Slytherin and Emi literally growled. She was leaning against the doorway with one half of her body getting soaked in the pouring rain so that she wouldn’t get called out and given detention. “Malfoy’s a wimp.” Most of the team agreed but Oliver just shook his head and sighed.

“His arm is their excuse, but what they’re really doing is trying to avoid this weather at all costs.” Emi glanced outside.

“Oh, the weather’s bad? I hadn’t noticed.” Oliver rolled his eyes at the grinning girl and carried on.

“The main problem is that we’ve been practicing all these moves assuming we’re playing Slytherin, and instead it’s Hufflepuff, and their style’s quite different. They’ve got a new Captain and Seeker, Cedric Diggory —“ Suddenly, all of the girls in the room giggled. Emi rolled her eyes and Oliver looked extremely confused. “What?”

“He’s that tall, good looking one, isn’t he?”

“Strong and silent.” The Gryffindor girls started to giggle again and all of the boys looked very uncomfortable.

“He’s only silent because he’s too thick to string two words together. And I don’t know why you’re so worried, Oliver, Hufflepuff is a pushover. Last time we played them Harry caught the snitch within five minutes, remember?” Fred said, slightly irritated with the females in the group.

Now Oliver was shouting and Emiliana was trying to maintain a straight face. “We’re playing in extremely different conditions!” His eyes were bulging out of his head slightly. “Diggory’s put a very strong side together! He’s an excellent Seeker! I was afraid you’d take it like this! We mustn’t relax! We must keep our focus! Slytherin is trying to wrong-foot us! We must win!”

Now everyone was alarmed. “Oliver, calm down! We’re taking Hufflepuff very seriously. Seriously.”

-

Emi was prohibited from going into her uncle’s office for the next day and had to deal with Snape teaching DADA. To make matters worse, he was also teaching about werewolves, and he could definitely see Emi’s glare the whole of class. Harry was too busy avoiding Oliver in the halls, Ginny was off with Luna every second that she could, Hermione was always studying, she didn’t know Ron that well, and to make matters even worse, Astoria still wasn’t talking to her. So, once again, she spent all of her free time in the library.

-

Quidditch always seemed exciting to Emi, but she was never excited about it. She didn’t pay attention to much during the first part of the game, looking up every once and a while to yell something encouraging at the players, didn’t matter what team they were on. About halfway through, a timeout was called and Hermione did something to Harry’s glasses to make him see better. All was fine for a moment and Emi went back to day-dreaming, but then Harry started to get caught above a dementor huddle. The girl covered her mouth as if it would do something, and watched as her friend fell out of the sky, screaming as he barreled towards the ground. Luckily, Dumbledore slowed him down and put him on a stretcher, but Emi still found tears rolling down her face as she ran to get out of the Slytherin stands as fast as she could.

The girl waited by his bed with all of his friends until he came around and then she slipped away to the back of the group. Harry talked to his teammates and until Ron and Hermione had to break it to him that his nimbus was shattered, but all Emi could hear was “My fault, my fault, my fault.” Over and over again.

She waited until everyone was gone before she finally made herself known, her lips dry from not speaking for a while. “I’m so sorry, Harry. I don’t know, I feel like this is my fault.” Harry looked at her, incredibly confused.

“Why would it be your fault?”

“Well the dementors are only here because of my dad, and I dunno. It just seems like it’s my fault. I know it doesn’t make any sense. I’m really sorry that your broom got broken, by the way. I knew that it was important to you.” Harry waved it off, but she could tell it was forced.

“I’ll get a new one.” But they could both tell that his heart wasn’t in it. Neither of them could think of anything else to say, so they sat in silence, just enjoying each other’s presence, until Madam Pomfrey came to shoo her away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N Ok, so I'm on a writing roll this week! Sorry that this chapter is really long. Or, not sorry I guess? Anyways, the plot'll come back along in a bit. This was more of a filler chapter with Emi and Harry's sort of sibling bond smushed in the middle.


	4. Four - Hogsmeade

Lupin was back to teaching after the weekend was over, something that everyone seemed glad about. The whole class explained the werewolf-paper situation and he shot a slightly amused look at his niece while everyone was yelling about how unfair it was. She assumed that he’d already had this conversation with multiple classes. He held Emi after class, which made some of her classmates ooh and laugh. She laughed back in a mocking way and made her way over to his desk. Her uncle’s eyes were darting about rapidly and Emi was getting worried. “I’ve promised Harry some lessons on how to fight dementors.” Emi nodded slowly and made the continue motion with her hand. “I want you to be there.”

“No. Absolutely not.”

“Emi!”

“No! I know that you’re going to use a boggart because I know that that’s his greatest fear, oh don’t look at me like that I have my ways of finding information, and I do not want to face a boggart again! I don’t know what it’ll be this time! I didn’t even know what it meant last time!”

The girl was nearing hysteria and waving her arms around wildly. Lupin looked unimpressed and waited for his niece to finish.

“So you’ll help out?” Emi deflated and sighed.

“Yeah, obviously.”

-

It was Saturday, and Emi was wandering the castle with Harry, trying to keep him company and lift his spirits. She was in the middle of a story about how she broke her arm when she was a kid, when he held up a hand and stared at something in the distance. Upon further inspection, Emi discovered that it was the Weasley twins beckoning Harry over quietly. When he motioned to his cousin, the twins shook their heads rapidly and glared slightly at the girl. She rolled her eyes and started to walk away, chuckling to herself. “Come find me when the House-ist twins are gone. I’ll be in the library.” She twitched her nose and headed towards her said destination.

Emi was in the middle of a book about broomstick making when Harry slid down next to her with a piece of paper clenched tightly in his hand. He was grinning ear-to-ear and there was a rather happy aura surrounding the boy. “How would you like to go to Hogsmeade?” Emi’s mouth dropped open and she grinned at the boy but looked confused. 

“How?”

“Fred and George gave me a map of Hogwarts!”

“Shut up. Really?” Harry nodded eagerly, tapped his wand on the piece of paper and muttered something under his breath.

“Yeah, look! Messrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs proudly present the Marauder’s Map!” Emi’s heart skipped a beat and she held her breath until her lungs hurt. 

“Come again?” She said horsley and Harry repeated the sentence, sounding less excited but still incredibly happy. Emi slipped on a fake smile and set a reminder to interrogate her uncle later. “Right. Well, let’s get going! This map shows the entire school?” Harry nodded, his earlier confusion forgotten. She stood and pulled her cousin up, and they started off towards the one-eyed witch, Harry leading the way. Emi smiled every time the 13-year-old looked her way, but the sinking feeling in her gut only grew larger with each step. 

-

Emi fought with herself the entire way down the tunnel, which was nice, because it distracted her from Harry, who was crawling in front of her. She wanted to turn back and burn that stupid map, but she knew that Harry needed this. Plus, she’d probably get grounded if Remus ever found out that she burned one of the last things from his schoolboy days. She had a feeling that this piece of parchment was important to him. Harry abruptly stopped and she bumped into his back, but he didn’t seem too worried. 

He lifted a trapdoor up and quickly pulled himself out, Emi following in his footsteps. They quickly darted behind a stack of boxes when they heard someone coming and waited for him to get distracted to run. They found Ron and Hermione in the shop and as Harry was talking to them, Emi got a chance to admire Honeydukes in all of its sugary glory. 

She snuck one of Hermione’s sugar quills and sucked on it as they headed over to The Three Broomsticks. Ron disappeared as they all found a seat, and reappeared moments later with three foaming Butterbeers and a hot chocolate. Emi grinned, kissed Ron on the cheek (which made him go incredibly red), and took a large drink of her cocoa, getting whipped cream all over her mouth. 

Suddenly, the door opened and in came Flitwick and McGonagall, followed shortly by Hagrid and the Minister of Magic. Emi slid under the table and pulled Harry down with her as Hermione moved a tree in front of them. The teachers ordered their drinks and sat down, which dashed any hope that Emi had of them leaving quickly. Rosemerta brought their drinks over and they invited her to join. Everything seemed incredibly boring until they got to the root of what Fudge was really doing there. Then Emi’s heart rate quickened. At first the conversation seemed normal. “Oh I thought he was innocent” and “oh he was so nice at school” and “oh I never would have believed it”, until Fudge spoke up.

“You don’t know the half of it, Rosemerta. The worst he did isn’t widely known.” Emi froze and gripped the pole holding the table up.

“The worst? Worse than murdering all those poor people, you mean?”

“I certainly do.”

“I can’t believe that. What could possibly be worse?”

“You say that you remember him at Hogwarts, Rosemerta, do you remember who his best friend was?”

“Naturally. Never did see one without the other, did you? The number of times they were in here — ooh they used to make me laugh. Quite the double act, Sirius Black and James Potter.” Emi heard Harry drop his tankard and winced. It was all she could do not to cry or run or scream, so she focused on who was talking.

“Precisely.” That was McGonagall. “Black and Potter. Ringleaders of their little gang. Both very bright, of course — exceptionally bright, in fact — but I don’t think we’ve ever had such a pair of troublemakers.”

“I dunno. Fred and George could give ‘em a run for their money.” Hagrid.

“You’d have thought Black and Potter were brothers!” Flitwick. “And then they were brothers, what with Miss Patria Potter!” Emi felt tears brim her eyes and she sucked in a breath of air to try and breathe normally again.

“Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing changed when they left school. Black was best Best Man when James married Lily and James for Patria and Sirius. Then they named him godfather of Harry. Harry has no idea, of course. You can imagine how the idea would torment him.” Fudge. Emi was back to focusing on names.

“Because Black turned out to be in league with You-Know-Who?” Rosemerta.

“Worse even then that, m’dear.” Fudge’s voice lowered and Emi had to prick her ears up to hear what he was saying. “Not many people are aware that the Potters knew that You-Know-Who was after them. Dumbledore, who was of course, working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding. Well, of course, You-Know-Who wasn’t an easy person to hide from. Dumbledore told them that their best chance was the Fidelius charm.”

“How does that work?” Rosemerta was listening like it was a fairytale story being told to her by children, which stirred up a cauldron of hate and rage inside of Emi, but she kept listening.

Flitwick cleared his throat and started to talk like he was teaching a class. “An immensely complex spell involving the magical concealment of a secret inside a single, living soul. The information is hidden inside the chosen person, or secret-keeper, and is henceforth impossible to find — unless, of course, the secret-keeper chooses to divulge it. As long as the secret-keeper refused to speak, You-Know-Who could search the entire village where Lily and James were staying for years and never find them, not even if he had his nose pressed against their living room window!” Emi felt herself going paler and Harry still hadn’t looked at her.

“So Black was the Potters’ secret keeper?” Everyone was whispering now, and Emi accidentally bumped Ron’s leg as she tried to get closer. 

“Naturally. James Potter told Dumbledore that Black would rather die than tell where they were, that Black planned to go into hiding himself… and yet, Dumbledore remained worried. I remember him offering to be the Potters’ secret keeper himself.”

“He suspected Black?”

“He was sure someone close to the Potters’ had been keeping You-Know-Who informed of their movements. Indeed he suspected for some time that someone on our side had turned traitor and was passing a lot of information to You-Know-Who.”

“But James Potter insisted on using Black?”

“Indeed he did. And then, barely a week after the Fidelius charm had been performed—“ Rosemerta cut him off.

“Black betrayed them?”

“He did indeed. Black was tired of being a double agent, he was ready to declare his support openly to You-Know-Who, and he seems to have planned this for the moment of the Potters’ death. But, as we all know, You-Know-Who met his downfall in little Harry Potter. Powers gone, horribly weakened, he fled. And he left Black in a very nasty situation indeed. His master had fallen at the very moment he, Black, had shown his true colors as a traitor. He had no choice but to run for it—“ Fudge was abruptly cut off by a very emotional Hagrid. Emi couldn’t hear anything except for a buzzing noise in her ears that seemed to be drowning out every noise. The girl was completely still for the first time in her life and she was staring at her hands with such an intensity that one would think that they were the root of all evil in the world. Emi managed to tune back into the conversation just as it started to turn to her.

“But what if I’d given Harry to him, eh? I bet he’d’ve pitched him off the bike halfway out ter sea! His bes’ friends’ son! But when a wizard goes to the dark side, there ain’t nothin’ or no one that matters to ‘em anymore. That’s probably why he decided to abandon his daughter with poor Remus. Remus pro’ly doesn’t want the kid either. I know her and she’s way too much like her father.” McGonagall jumped in and Emi was grateful, for Hagrid probably would have kept going.

“Miss Black is not a bad person. Quite the opposite. In fact, she’s better than the Weasley twins at the moment.” Hagrid grunted.

“S’what you thought about her father too.” The buzzing noise returned and the only thing that Emi could see was the door in front of her. It was sheer luck that none of the teachers saw her, and she still doesn’t know how she did it. She headed back to Honeydukes and waited for Harry outside, knowing that he’d be along soon. He also seemed to be in a daze when he came back and didn’t say anything even once they’d reached the castle again. 

Emi tapped him on the shoulder before he got the chance to walk away and man, did she regret it. His glare was cold enough to freeze her where she stood, and he was actually mad at her. He’d never been mad at her before, so this was new territory. She went to say something, but found that words were failing her, so he filled the silence.

“Your dad killed my parents. You’re the reason I don’t have any parents.” Emi registered his words and swallowed roughly.

“What?” She said, barely a whisper.

“You heard what Hagrid said, didn’t you? “He was always bringing her to James’ house so that her and little Harry could hang out. It made no sense for him to go alone, even if it was late.” If you hadn’t been born, your dad might not have known where my parents lived and they’d still be alive!” He was screaming now, something that Emi had never seen him do.

“Harry that doesn’t make sense. He still would’ve known. They were friends long before I was even a thought.” Harry growled and tugged on his hair.

“I don’t care if it doesn’t make sense! All I know is that my parents are dead and it’s your dad’s fault.”

“How does that make it my fault?!”

“I don’t know! Just, just stay away from me, ok? Stay away.” Emi could do nothing except close her mouth and nod slowly, a sick feeling in her stomach swallowing her up as Harry stormed away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it's been a while. On the bright side, this is one of the longest chapters yet! (it felt like the longest chapter yet) Anyways, I wanted to apologize for the fact that the Weasley's and Hagrid are kind of jerks in this. Hagrid is just Hagrid and sort of jumped to conclusions. Don't worry, he'll be back with an apology. And the Weasley's have nothing against Emi in general, it's just that they seem sort of house-ist towards Slytherins in general. They'll also be back with an apology.


	5. Five - Winter

Harry hadn’t apologized that night, and neither had Ron or Hermione (not that she expected them too, but it would’ve been nice). The girl woke up alone and was excited to spend the holidays with her friends, until she remembered that Luna had gone back home over the holidays and so had Ginny, so she was alone in the school. She decided to make the best out of it and go down to stuff herself during breakfast and eat in the DADA classroom before exercising. Emi headed down to the Great Hall and grabbed her favorite comfort snacks to make herself feel better, knowing that she was going to run it off later anyways.

She finished her meal, hugged her uncle goodbye, and headed outside. Running always made her feel safer because the faster she got, the faster she could get away from her problems.

She ran and ran until she tired herself out. Well, until she fell over something, stopped, and realized how tried she actually was. She was close to the Whomping Willow, and, contrary to popular belief, she was smart enough to stay away. She backed up and leaned against the castle to down her water bottle, but then she noticed a flash of orange edging the base of said tree. Her eyes narrowed and she peered around the edge, sighing when she realized that it was only Hermione’s cat. She walked over carefully and picked him up, thinking that maybe Hermione would talk to her if she returned him.

Crookshanks squirmed and hissed, moving around and getting dander all over the girl’s clothes, which made her annoyed enough to drop the cat gently (She knew that she probably could’ve let him jump down but she’d never had a cat and just wanted him to go). So much for making it up to Hermione. She huffed and went to go shower quickly before going to play in the snow.

She built a group of snowmen and adjusted them to the likeness of everyone she was mad at. She added small swigs until they formed glasses on one, a loose black plant on top of the next one, and then her own Slytherin tie on the final one. She took a step back and closed her eyes so that the tears that were trying to escape couldn’t. Then she opened her eyes and round-house kicked her head off. Her tie was buried under a small pile of snow. She took one look at it and punched her father’s snow man in the face. His head also fell off and she didn’t look back at it, even though she wanted to. Finally, Harry. Emi squatted down so that she was staring at his coal eyes, and shook her head after a few seconds. She gave him one punch to the mid section and the whole thing collapsed, falling onto the Sirius snowman, which fell onto the Emi snowman, which buried her tie even further. A sob wrenched its way out of her throat as she kicked the top of the pile before storming inside of the castle.

Like her mind was on auto-pilot, she found her way to an empty classroom and sat down at one of the desks, ignoring the godawful screech that her chair made. She put her head on the desk and wrapped her arms around it so that she could muffle any noise, not that there was much. Then, she screamed. She screamed until her throat was raw and then she screamed until she couldn’t feel it. She screamed until she was sobbing and it was more of a screeching cry kind of situation. She screamed until she felt someone put a hand on her shoulder, and then she stopped. All of the air whooshed out of her lungs and she stopped dead before putting her head down on the desk again. “Good heavens, Miss Black. Are you alright? I thought that you were a banshee. Professor Flitwick is outside, scared half to death.” Emi looked up at the teacher finally and the elder’s face changed so drastically that it would have been funny if the situations were different. However they were not and all that the girl felt was pain. The professor pursed her lips and looked away in thought for a second before heading up to her office. “Come along, Miss Black. I have some tea for your throat and biscuits are always delightful during times like these.”

So that’s how Emi ended up in possibly the weirdest lunch she’d ever had. Well first off it wasn’t really lunch, just tea and biscuits, but it was around lunch time and Emi was never good at eating so it was pretty satisfactory on the food scale. But the main problem was that there was no sound whatsoever. No talking, only the occasional crunch of biscuits as she finished one off and the occasional sip of tea. “Professor McGonagall, why did you invite me here?” She gave the woman a loaded question to break the silence, which probably wasn’t the smartest decision.

“Well for starters, you were screaming your head off in my classroom. And I could use the company. Sometimes I get lonely up here.” She gave a loaded response. Nicely done, Minerva. Nicely done.

“Ok, but why me? I’m sure that you would prefer someone from your own house. Like Harry, or Ron, or Hermione, or-“ She didn’t get to finish.

“All of my students are equal, Emiliana. It does not matter which house they are in, or which families they are from,” She peered over her spectacles at this and raised an eyebrow as the girl sunk further into the chair. “All that matters is that they are my students. You are my student. That is why I invited you in.” Emiliana was speechless and took a sip of her tea to fill the hole in the conversation after she realized that her vocal cords weren’t working during that moment. McGonagall took a sip too, and the two avoided eye contact for a few seconds before the teacher finally asked what she was really wondering. “Why were you upset, Miss Black?”

“Oh, you know, just upset that my friends are gone.” Jeez, that was a bad one.

“Is that so?” Wait, what?

“Yes. In fact, one of my very close friends is going through a rough patch right now.”

“Tell me more.” She didn’t sound interested, but she didn’t sound bored…

“Yeah. She just found out that her dad was really close to one of her other friend’s dad, and he did something a few years ago to make him really hurt, so now the friend’s mad at her. Even though it isn’t her fault and she had nothing to do with it.”

“Well I hope that this friend is doing ok and that she knows that it isn’t her fault. I hope that she confronts her friend and yells at him because he’s being an imbecile and it’s not her fault.” Emi blinked hard. McGonagall was totally onto her, but she wasn’t even saying a thing! In fact, she was giving her advice! The teacher cleaned up the desk and started to shoo her away. “I’m sure that you have homework and a friend to comfort.” The teacher winked at the young girl.

As Emi was leaving, she smiled a real smile for the first time in days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so this is a bit of a shorter chapter, but I promise more things are on their way. I'm gonna try to upload a few times today and tomorrow to make up for the break. Sorry about that btw, I sprained my elbows and couldn't type for a few days. Yes, both of them. How? I dunno.


	6. Chapter 6

Little background here: Sirius Black loved music. His all time favorite was actually one that he shared with Lily: Queen. He also loved Heart and The Rolling Stones. So he made cassette tapes with his favorite songs on them, and hid them in his trunk and other hidden places, like buried treasure. Usually though, he left them in his robes. Since the Ministry couldn’t figure out what they were when they took his possessions, they were put with the rest of his things: The Black Family Vault in Gringotts. Now, word has it that if you pay a goblin well enough, they won’t squeal when getting things for you.

With that out of the way, we can move on with the story. (Trust me, this is important. Not just a side story just to add more words. I would never do that. Pfft, what are you talking about?)

-

If there was one thing that Emi loved, it was food. But she was going to fast before the Christmas feast, so she skipped dinner that night and grabbed a glass of water from the kitchen (prompting Lupin to ask what she was doing and then totally misread the situation and tell her that she was beautiful and didn’t need to worry about her body and how much she was eating so that was fun). So Christmas Morning was a blessing. Usually she’d open presents with her Uncle, but she could open just one on her own, right? Yeah. Oh shut up she deserves a break.

Emi grabbed the closest present, a small box on her nightstand, and pulled it up onto her lap. She tugged the bow off gently before ripping the rest of the paper off and throwing the top across the room like a frisbee. Inside of the box was a small walkman that Emi recognized from a muggle movie. There were also some headphones and two different cassette tapes. The girl’s eyes widened and she made a mental note to thank Remus as she hugged the things close to her chest. She placed them back into the box gently before stretching and finally getting out of bed. She scrunched her face and smiled before bounding down the stairs and towards Remus’s office.

Emi slammed into the doorway on her way into the office, she was so excited. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!”� She squeezed her uncle so hard he was sure his lungs would be squeezed onto the floor.

“Careful! Now, not that I don’t appreciate it, but what’s this about? Surely it’s not your presents, they’re all here still.” Emi stepped away from her uncle like he was burning hot.

“What did you say?” Remus repeated his sentence, rather confused. “Not even a walkman?” Emi wiggled her eyebrows up and down and Remus gave Emi a bittersweet smile that wasn’t quite directed towards her, before looking confused again.

“Walkman’s don’t work here, Emi. Just like every other piece of technology. You know this.” Emi looked around the room, but after a short time fitted a fake smile onto her face. 

“Right, of course. Silly me.” She gave a fake chuckle and leaned over to grab a present, trying to push it to the back of her mind.

It didn’t work.

The walkman pestered her all day. She couldn’t enjoy opening presents with her uncle, she couldn’t enjoy helping the house-elves in the kitchen (and by helping she was just watching warming herself by the fire and chatting with the elves as they passed by), and she couldn’t even enjoy rolling down one of the hills covered in snow! 

Thankfully the feast was terrible, so it took her mind off of the Walkman. She loaded up her plate with all the food that she could want and ate in silence. The tables had been moved into the middle and everyone was sitting at them. Incredibly uncomfortable. A fellow slytherin, probably a fifth year, was also there, which made her feel a little more comfortable. She still hadn’t gotten her tie from the grounds, and she hadn’t put any other ties on either, even though she had a whole drawer.

There were also two first year Gryffindors at the table near the golden trio.

She was pulled out of her thoughts roughly when Professor Trelawney entered the room. She had heard from Harry that she was a bit out of whack, but she seemed like a nice enough person. “Sybill, this is a pleasant surprise.” Dumbledore stood up and Trelawney started talking. It was at that moment that Emi knew why Harry didn’t like her. Well maybe it was just why she didn’t like her, but it would definitely be a good reason for Harry to dislike her. She talked in such a lost, misty voice that Emi found it hard to even focus on what she was saying. The girl blinked hard a few times to make sure that she wasn’t falling asleep and tried to focus on her potatoes again.

It wasn’t until after dessert and Emi tried to stand up that the attention was turned to her. “Oh, uh. Thank you for the meal, Professor Dumbledore? Err, well thanks to the house elves and well, umm, sorry. I’m just gonna…” She was beet red and gave a large fake smile before trying to back out of the awkward conversation. Trelawney gasped dramatically as she started to leave and the girl turned to the seer impatiently. “Yes?”

“You were the first of 13 to get up! You will die first!” Emi blinked and tilted her head in confusion. She did a quick mental count again and blinked again.

“But professor, there are 14 people including me.”

“Oh.” She looked lost for a second and Emi felt kind of bad for her. “Well, carry on then.” Dumbledore stood up and motioned towards Emi.

“Thank you for joining us, Miss Black. It was a joy to have you here.”

“Yeah, a real joy.” Emi said so quietly that only she could hear it. A small smirk graced her face as she tuned into whatever the Headmaster was saying. “Oh, um, yeah. Thank you for having me. I’m gonna head back to the dungeons now. And stop talking now.” She drawled the letters out and scrunched her nose while smiling. “I’ll, um, see you all later?” Then she left because she really didn’t want to embarrass herself anymore.

-

Later that night, while lying in bed, Emi reached for the walkman. She hesitated only slightly before grabbing one of the tapes and putting the headphones on. then she listened. Slowly, the music filled her ears and she started to drift off to sleep, a small smile evident on her face. Whoever made the playlist had good taste. The sound of an angry female voice filled her ears and she stopped to wonder if maybe the name was on the tapes. She grabbed the spare one and turned it around a few times before focusing on the words on the front.

I bet you gonna ambush me

The words rang in her ears as her breathing quickened and she started to hyperventilate. She swallowed hard and tumbled out of bed, scrambling to get the headphones away from her ears. They fell to the ground, the music slightly muffled but still playing.

Silly, silly fools

Emi fled downstairs and sat in the common room, afraid to fall asleep, because every time she closed her eyes the words flashed in her head again. Sirius Black's Music 1 was scrawled in messy handwriting on the front of her tape.


	7. Seven - Sleep

Emi didn’t sleep the rest of that night. Or the next night. She moved to go to the library and look up whatever she could about muggle electronics and spells for use of them in Hogwarts. She found nothing. When everyone came back, she was silent and laying on the couch, trying to rest her eyes without actually slipping into a dream. She didn’t move, and even Draco Malfoy was worried about her. Well, he wasn’t at first, but then he accidentally sat on her and got rather scared when she didn’t react. Her cousin wasn’t the most attentive person, but he did look out for his fellow Slytherins. He ordered Crabbe and Goyle to grab her an apple from the kitchen because, in his words, “She looks like her father in his mugshot.” She shot a glare at the boy but gratefully accepted the food, her eyes shining with gratitude. 

That afternoon, she decided to stop feeling sorry for herself and get out. She went to the library and the grounds more and she started to wander Hogwarts the day before term started. She caught Wood’s familiar voice and then Harry’s from around the corner and stopped. She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop, but she hadn’t heard the voice of her cousin in a while and she missed it.

“Have you ordered a new broom yet?”

“No.”

“What! You’d better get a move on, you know -- you can’t ride a Shooting Star into your match with Ravenclaw!”

“He got a Firebolt for Christmas.” Emi’s hands tightened on the doorframe and she closed her eyes, trying to imagine what on Earth was wrong with the boy if he got a Firebolt and just didn’t tell Wood. In doing so, she missed some of the conversation and was left to fill in the blanks.

“McGonagall still wants to strip down ---” Emi almost laughed while picturing Wood’s face at the moment.

“I’ll go and talk to her, Harry. I’ll make her see reason … A Firebolt … A real Firebolt, on our team … She wants Gryffindor to win the match just as much as we do … I’ll make her see sense. A Firebolt …”

After Wood’s voice faded away, Emi poked her head around to see if the boys were still there. Ron saw her and shook his head frantically, moving Harry away from her. He looked back once Harry was talking and shot her a sympathetic glance. Emi glared at the floor and wiped her eyes harshly to keep from crying.

-

As soon as Emi got back to her dorm, she flopped on the bed dramatically. An owl flew in as soon as she got comfortable and started to pecik at her hand. She waved the bird off and took the message, rolling off of her bed and onto the floor, where she crossed her legs to get more comfortable. The note read:

Pip,

“What a great start to a letter. He only calls me that when he’s asking for something important.” Emi thought and continued on.

Yes, I’m asking you for something. Harry is coming to do dementor lessons with me on Thursday at 8:00. Please be there.

Uncle Moony

The word “moony” sent a jolt through Emi and she remembered the mental note that she made to herself a few weeks ago. “A few weeks ago?! It feels like a few days ago.” She muttered and promised herself to talk to her uncle when she could.

-

Emi didn’t want to go to the lesson. Thursday arrived much faster than she would’ve liked, and she dragged her feet all the way to the classroom. Somehow she was still earlier than Harry, and she waited in the corner, pouting.

Remus enjoyed slow, quiet things. Things that grandmas would like, like the crackling of a fire and cardigans and tea. He also enjoyed the opposite: Emi. She was his favorite thing most of the time, even though sometimes she was the bane of his existence. He was just glad that her drama wasn’t too bad and she was still mostly happy and smiling, so he could still enjoy a cup of tea every now and then.

The girl was like a tornado when she did have drama though, and this was definitely one of those times. 

Harry finally arrived and the two males got to work fast, leaving Emi in the dark. It wasn’t until Lupin called for her example that Harry even noticed she was there.

“Hello Emiliana.” His tone was so serious that she couldn’t help mocking it.

“Hello Harricus Diddlesworth.” Lupin rolled his eyes and cleared his throat.

“Emi? Example?” Emi nodded and thought of her favorite memories. Ones of her and Ginny and Luna. Mostly she thought of Luna and her smile and her laugh and how she looked at the girl in such a way that just said what she was thinking. Most of the time it was: Emiliana Black, you’re ridiculous. But sometimes it was: Emiliana Black, you’re incredible.

Emi was so focused on these memories that she didn’t even notice the tiny, black puppy emerging from her wand. She didn’t notice when Harry’s jaw dropped either, even though it would have been the perfect example to make fun of him. She was only broken out of her stupor when Lupin clapped his hands together and she was pulled out of her bliss abruptly. She opened her eyes and couldn’t focus on his words, even though she was getting complimented. She just nodded and moved back over to the corner to sit and think.

-

The lesson finished quickly, although maybe that was because she was daydreaming the entire time. She decided that her new goal was to spend as much time as possible with Luna. As a science experiment of course. If there was one thing that she’d learned from her classes, it was to observe your findings before you make a conclusion. She went to the library with Luna more often and helped her look for her clothes more than once. She even missed dinner for her. Twice.

And so, she came to a conclusion.

She liked Luna.

Emi was going to tell the girl the next time that she saw her, but then her father had to go and ruin the moment. 

She was asleep in the girl’s dormitory, her head hanging over the floor and her blankets wrapped around her like a burrito. Her female prefect woke her up right as she was going to dig into a gigantic dream sundae and pulled her out of bed. 

Contrary to popular belief, Jillian Moore was a good prefect, and a better big sister. She treated all of her housemates like her own siblings, even going as far as to bail them out of trouble from time to time. But now Snape was in the middle of the common room, and some of the others were starting to wake up, and all she wanted to do was get the poor girl away from everything. But she had her future to think about. So she delivered the girl to the head and corralled everyone back into their dorms.

Emi had absolutely no clue what was going on. One second Jillian was pulling her down the stairs, the next Snape was pulling her down the stairs. Different stairs, of course. And Snape wasn’t really pulling her, so much as walking briskly and making her worried enough to follow him. She wasn’t scared of Snape. Pfft, what? Why would you say that?

Moving on…

Emi didn’t even realize that they had arrived at Dumbledore’s office until they were in it. Said old man took one look at her bed-ridden appearance and shook his head. “She’s innocent.”

“Yes. That is right.” She didn’t know what they were talking about but by golly if she wasn’t gonna defend her honor.

“Miss Black, you don’t even know what we’re talking about. And I still don’t believe it. How else would he get into the castle.” Emi’s stomach dropped and she tilted her head back and sighed.

“What happened with my father?” She droned and pinched the bridge of her nose like she’d seen Remus doing so many times before.

“So you admit it. How else would you have known who we were talking about?” This dude really wanted to get on her nerves, didn’t he?

“I’m sorry, should I have assumed that there is another insane maniac loose from Azkaban and hellbent on getting into this castle, I presume to get to Gryffindor tower to kill my cousin and then probably kill me and maybe you on his way out?” Emi had her hands on her hips and the lack of sleep, not just from tonight, finally hit her. “Listen, I have no clue how he got into the castle, all I know is that I don’t want to die at 12. I want to stop him as much as you. The only person I’ve kissed is Remus, and that’s because he’s my uncle. That is not an accomplishment, Professor. I don’t want to die with that written on my grave. Accomplishments: Nothing. Beloved Niece and Daughter to Psychotic Maniac.” She added the last part in an announcer voice and turned towards the door, running straight into a fleece cardigan. “I hate you.” Her voice was muffled and Remus turned her around to face the headmaster, a smile playing on his face. 

“Don’t worry Miss Black. I’m sure that you’ll get your kiss in no time, and I hope that you’ll live for a very long time. But we do need to do some routine checks and Professor Snape has to give you some Veritiserum.” Snape handed her a cup, still looking a bit put off from her outburst, although he might just look like that in general. Emi yawned lightly before downing the cup in one, followed by a cough and a large swallow of air.

“Where were you yesterday?”

“I was in the library and then the kitchen.”

“Why the kitchen?”

“There’s food and I like the house elves. They’re nice to me.”

“What about your friends?”

“I didn’t get to talk to Luna because she was with Hagrid, looking for magical beasts, Ginny was with the Twins, probably causing mischief, and Harry, Ron, and Hermione won’t talk to me.”

“Why not?”

“He thinks that it’s my fault that his parents are dead.”

“Why does he think that?”

This is where she hesitated. “I don’t know. Ron and Hermione overheard the teachers talking about it in The Three Broomsticks and he assumed from there.” It wasn’t technically the truth, but she was just barely dancing around it.

“This is taking too long.” Three guesses who that was. “Have you ever conspired to get Sirius Black into the castle?”

“You’re going to have to be a bit more specific. Last year I conspired to get an alpaca into the castle. My friends named it after my dad, but I call him Fernando El Scarf-io.” This led to a raised eyebrow at Lupin, who gravely nodded his head and sighed.

“She’s telling the truth. He lives in our backyard now.” Snape seemed rather put off by this but continued his questioning, looking even more annoyed than usual. Emi didn’t think that it was possible, but apparently she was wrong.

“Ok. Have you ever conspired to get your father into the castle?”

“No.”

“Have you been in contact with your father this year?”

“I’ve never talked to him. Pretty sure he doesn’t know that I exist.” She laughed, although it wasn’t a funny joke and she looked rather sad afterwards.

“Did you know that your father was planning to break into the castle before tonight?”

“No.”

“Did he come talk to you before he snuck into Gryffindor tower?”

“Literally just told you that I’ve never met him.”

“Ok. You’re done.” Emi blinked and her eyebrows furrowed.

“Really? Sweet. Can I go back to the dungeons?” Dumbledore shook his head and smiled sadly at the girl.

“No. Miss Black you are going to be living in the Infirmary for the next week, just in case your father attacks again.”

“What? But I answered everything correctly!”

“I know, but just in case. We don’t want you in the line of fire or sacrificed by other students.” Emi looked like someone had slapped her in the face, but nodded slowly.

“Alright. Ok. That’s fine. How will I do my class work?”

“It will get delivered to you in the morning and you will work through it during the day. If you have any questions, ask Madame Pomfrey.”

Emi nodded slowly and tried to block out the remainder of the night. All she could remember was that she got to the infirmary and fell asleep listening to Lupin and Pomfrey talk about her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So this is a really long one, and I thought about splitting it into two but it just didn't work (and also that would've taken thinking and I only have, like, one braincell) so special thanks to my Beta reader and hope that you enjoyed!


	8. Eight - Tunnel

Emi woke up in the hospital wing. This was concerning, because for a moment she had no clue what was going on. Then the events of last night came flooding back and she let out a soft gasp before rubbing her eyes and pulling the curtains around. She found fresh clothes laying on the table and smiled lightly. She thanked whoever brought them to her in her head and pulled the curtains back around, pulling her clothes on quickly. She left the tie off after a second’s consideration, she wasn’t feeling very Slytherin like at the moment. Emi ducked under the covers when she heard softly heeled footsteps approaching and held back a laugh when, not a second later, Madame Pomfrey pulled the curtains around, snapping at her for not being up already. The girl changed her hair quickly (more as a favor to herself than Madame Pomfrey) into a more boyish cut. She gelled it up quickly with a spare tin that she always kept in her robes and changed the roots to a darker brown, but kept the white.

Emi stepped out of bed slowly and walked over to the woman. She was careful enough not to make a noise and she stood straight as a rod next to the nurse. “I said get up, you- oh!” Emi scrunched her nose in a smile and waggled her fingers at the woman, who was holding her heart. “You have schoolwork, and then you have hospital work.” Pomfrey instructed and Emi saluted her before turning back to her bed.

“Should I do my work over there, or?” Emi trailed off and raised an eyebrow. Pomfrey sighed and her mouth formed a tight line.

“There’s a desk over near my office. Don’t go into my office. Just sit at the desk and do your work.” Normally the girl would’ve dived right into the office the first chance she got, but something in her was telling her to listen to the nurse, so Emi just threw out an “aye aye, captain” and slid over to the desk. She stumbled over the chair, trying to get a grip to keep from hitting the ground. Once she was steady, she righted herself from the awkward position that she had put her legs in and grabbed the stack of papers that was weighing down her desk. It was better than that algebra stuff Remus taught her when she was younger, but it was still annoying. 

She set to work to try and do it all in one day so that she would have less to do tomorrow and started her work. Some of it was simple. Practice this charm and that charm and transfigure this object into a cat using this motion and write an essay for history of magic and Lupin gave her off and now she owed him and blah, blah, blah. But other stuff? Herbology and Potions stuff? Ha, that was fun. For Herbology it was “find a plant and draw it while labeling its sections”. That sounded all fine and whatever, but the only plant in the whole infirmary was a small biting cactus that Pomfrey seemed reluctant to give the girl. Emi had scoffed and told her that the cactus would be fine and she wouldn’t hurt it, and Pomfrey finally relented. Though after ten minutes of studying the plant, she realized that Pomfrey was more concerned with her well being than the plant’s. The stupid little prickles bit her twice on the nose and its tiny needles gave her even more freckles than she needed. After two butterfly bandages on her nose and a scowl, both from Pomfrey, she set back to work, this time to conquer potions. 

There was a paragraph of the history of potion making that she probably needs to read that was a tad confusing, but she skipped it and went straight to the lesson instructions. She was instructed to make a simple memory potion out of ingredients that she found in the infirmary, so it was a bit like a scavenger hunt. There was a list of substitutions if she didn’t have some of the ingredients that she was so thankful for, it must have been put in by mistake. An hour and a half (plus a small snack break) into the hunt and she’d found 8 out of the ten ingredients, so she turned to the substitutions list and groaned. One of the ingredients was “the ground root of a mandrake (no date required)” and the substitution was “the leaf of a magical tree (fresh)” and as far as she was concerned, cacti weren’t trees, nor did they have leaves. So that left one other option. Emi turned her head to the nearest window and whimpered slightly while looking out of it, silently cursing Severus Snape. If she wanted to get an O on this, she needed to take one of the Whomping Willow’s leaves.

-

Ok if she was really being honest, there was probably an easier way to go about this. There was a whole forest in front of her, and she also went to a magic school. Heck, if she pulled up a handful of grass, it’d probably work. But she needed a leaf and she was really bored, so bada-bing, bada-boom, she was trying to figure out how to not die while going about grabbing something from a dangerous branch holder.

After studying the tree for a few minutes she decided to go out and get a closer look. “Hey! Moraine! Come here!” She hissed at a nurse that was close-by. The nurse pursed her lips and sighed before walking over briskly.

“What is it?”

“I’m gonna go outside.”  
“Are you asking permission, or?”

“Pfft, no. I’m just telling you so that you’ll know where to find my body.” Moraine raised an eyebrow and Emiliana sighed. “I’ll be careful.” She droned and rolled her eyes before hopping out of the window. “Thanks, Moraine!” The nurse sighed and went back to her job, fighting a smile.

-

Emi landed on the ground with a squelch and made a face before trudging forward. She stopped a few feet in front of the Whomping Willow so it couldn’t get her and dropped to the ground, moving every so slightly that it didn’t notice. She’d realized from a particularly helpful (and probably dead now that she thought about it) little bug creature that the tree didn’t like fast movements, so she assumed that it didn’t like tall things either. She finally neared the trunk and reached for a branch that had gone limp, probably from the fact that it was too darn skinny, and looked to be dying. Her hand fell through the moss as she reached forward and suddenly the tree stopped. It just stopped moving instantly, and Emi got to have a closer look at what she’d stumbled upon.

It was a giant hole leading into the ground that Emi could fit into twice. Seriously, it was a huge hole. The willow started to unfreeze around the perimeter of the tree and she made a quick decision to flip her body over and slide into the hole. The tunnel dragged on for a while and she had to scoot for some of it, but eventually she ended up in a dusty old room. 

Scratches and rips littered the walls and there was an overturned coffee table in the corner. She took a deep breath and held it in, trying to calm her mind. “Ok,” she thought. “It’s one of those things on the Marauder’s Map. That passage that Harry said was impossible. Not so impossible now, huh Potter?”

Emi closed her eyes for a split second, and when she opened them there was a gigantic black dog in front of her. It looked like it was crossed between wanting to rip her throat out, and curiosity. She yelped and stumbled backwards into the previously mentioned table and barely managed to remain upright, her hair turning all different colors before finally deciding on a mix. Light blue with baby pink roots, probably because she was mostly scared of this dog but her curiosity was piqued and had taken root. 

“Hello?” She asked warily and held a hesitant hand out in front of her. The dog sniffed her carefully and licked her palm, pulling away in an almost concern when she winced. “No, no. You’re fine. I guess I cut myself on the way down.” She reassured the dog and then looked down like she was evaluating her life choices. “I’m talking to a dog, as if it were a human. Fan-freaking-tastic.” She said slowly and huffed, taking her headband and tying it around her hand as a temporary bandage. Then she turned back to the dog, curious. Emi pursed her lips and cocked her head in an almost uneasy habit. “Say, how’d a dog like you get down here anyways?” She half expected it to answer, and when it didn’t she was rather disappointed.

“Ah well. That’s that, I guess.” Emi shrugged and flipped the coffee table over, leaning on it but not trying all of her weight in case it broke underneath of her. She didn’t want Pomfrey asking any more questions. Emiliana narrowed her eyes and cracked her neck, not breaking eye contact with the dog. “Sit.” The dog sat. The girl’s eyebrows shot up and she nodded. “Huh. Good boy!” She felt odd saying that, but she did decide that he was a boy. “I’m gonna call you Padfoot.” If there was a competition for dogs that looked shocked to the bone, this dog would’ve been the golden winner. His eyes widened and his ears flattened comically, but Emi continued on without a care in the world. “It was the name of one of my Uncle’s friends. They made this really dope map of Hogwarts that I used with my cousin one time.” 

The dog made a confused noise, prompting Emi to tell the story. She debated about leaving the ending out, but it was a dog, and she really needed to rant. That turned into a spiel about how she was sure that her dad didn’t know that she existed and that her uncle would be better off without her. “I know for a fact that his dating life would be better.” She scoffed at one point and rubbed the dog's head, causing his ears to flop around. Her hair had changed fully into a darker pink by then, signifying that she was much more comfortable. The dog didn’t seem to mind.

“I should get going.” Emi said after a while of just talking to the dog. “You know a way out of here?” For a moment she panicked. What if there was no way out. What if she stayed in there until she starved to death or died of dehydration? The last thing she’d said to her uncle was about Fernando El-Scarfio, and that wasn’t even directed at him. Then the dog showed her that the tunnel was still open. Just covered with vines, and that she could crawl out if she was careful to hit the knot at the top again. Well, she figured that much out for herself, but Padfoot was still very helpful. 

“I’ll come back soon. Maybe with lunch. You’re looking a little skinny, my friend.” She laughed lightly, but she really was concerned about the poor dog, wanting nothing more than to give him a good meal and hug him tight and tell him all of her worries. She was about to go, but before she left she stuck her head out and locked eyes with the dog once more. “My patronus is a dog too. Just thought that you’d like to know. Maybe we’re connected!” She smiled cheerfully, scratched the dog’s ears one last time, and started the long climb back to the Whomping Willow. She made sure to grab a leaf on her way out, and headed back to the infirmary.

-

Sirius Black stared at that hole long after his daughter left and smiled sadly. “We’re more connected than you know, my little troublemaker.”


	9. Nine - Hagrid

The rest of the week followed sort of the same pattern. Emi would do her homework, eat lunch, and sneak away to go visit Padfoot. Surprisingly, Pomfrey never caught her. Moraine did once, but she didn’t really seem to care and just shrugged and left, which caused Emi to respect the nurse much more. She’d also learned that Moraine was a nurse in training, and was actually a 6th year Ravenclaw.

She’d talk to the dog for as long as she wanted, and he always seemed to listen. He was like a therapist, but for ranting. She told him all about Luna but she also told him about Harry, Hermione, Ron, and Ginny. She’d pretty much given up on Astoria, because she seemed like she hadn’t talked to her in ages. It was their fifth meeting that she talked about her dad.

“I just,” she waved her hands around and sighed, giving up on trying to express it. “I don’t hate him.” She finally admitted and the dog seemed to sigh in relief. “I’ve never met him, so I can’t hate him. I just wish that he’d been around more. I have no memories of him and Remus threw out any pictures that he had. And I-“ she cut herself off with a small gasp. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry! Here you go, Pads.” She placed a plate with the remainder of her lunch in front of the dog. He sniffed it carefully before gnawing at the chicken leg. 

The girl leaned against the wall again and huffed. “Where was I? Oh yeah. I don’t hate him. I really am hoping that I get to meet him before he’s carted off to Azkaban again. And I know that this is gonna sound really, really silly Pads, but, like, I sort of wish that he was after me. Like I know that Harry’s his enemy and he wants to serve his dark master and blah, blah, blah.” She rolled her eyes and her tone was one of mockery towards the end of her speech. “But, like, I’m his daughter. There would be some attention towards me instead of Harry all of the time.” She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. “I need help.” She muttered before turning to grin painfully at Padfoot. 

After playful chatter and some hair changes that always seemed to interest Padfoot, an idea struck. The girl smiled so wide she thought her face would break. “Hey, maybe you can be my pet!” She deflated. “No, never mind. They don’t take dogs, plus Remus would probably tell me to get rid of you because of rabies or whatever.” Emi shrugged and continued to talk until she realized that it was probably late. “I should get going. See you later, Pads.”

-

Emi made it back to the infirmary all right, but it was what waited inside that shocked her to the core. Hermione Granger was standing in the middle of the room, talking to Moraine. Hermione caught a glimpse of the girl sneaking in through the window and walked over to her. “Oh, hey. How’s it going?” Emi asked awkwardly, rubbing the nape of her neck as a nervous tick. Hermione suddenly hugged her tightly, taking the breath out of the metamorphmagus. “Oof.” She wheezed and patted the now crying bookworm on the back, trying to comfort her. She eventually pulled away, wiping her eyes and taking deep breaths.

“I’m so, so sorry! We never should have abandoned you, and it totally wasn’t your fault!” Emi forced a smile and shook her head.

“All is forgiven, but what are you doing here exactly?” But the Gryffindor was on a roll. She was basically repeating herself over and over again until she started to hyperventilate. “Hermione! Calm down, please!” Emi finally shouted and the girl slowed her breaths. “It’s ok. I don’t blame you. Please, calm down.” Hermione finally slowed her breathing and smiled shakily at the girl, wiping the remaining tears out of her eyes.

“Thank you.”

“Better now?”

“Much.”

“All right.” Emi created a small beat on her thighs and sighed. “You come here to ask me something or just to apologize?” Hermione’s eyes lit up and she nodded frantically.

“Do you wanna come to Hagrid’s with me?” Emi sucked in a breath and winced.

“I dunno, Mione. Hagrid and I don’t have the best track record.” One look at Hermione’s face made it clear that she wasn’t really asking. Emi grinned. The sassy girl who didn’t take no for an answer was back. A good thing, because Emi really didn’t know how much more crying she could take. “If you can sneak me out of here, I’m all yours.”

-

Emi messed around with her hair the entire way down to Hagrid’s. She alternated between her natural black curls and her usual white undercut, before finally deciding on the same spikes that she’d been wearing ever since she met Padfoot, only in dark pink with purple roots. She laced her hands behind her head to try and calm herself down as Hermione basically dragged her down the hill. But with her mind. They weren’t actually touching.

Hermione getting her out of the Hospital Wing had been surprisingly easy. She’d just asked her. Pomfrey seemed so fed up with Hermione even being there that she agreed immediately without even fully listening. Hermione called it tactic, Moraine called it impressive, and Emi called it annoying. Whatever it was, it got her out of the Hospital Wing and where she was now: angrily stomping her way down the path to the man who publicly berated her behind her back, to have tea.

Hagrid seemed surprised to see Hermione there and was even more surprised when Emi entered closely behind. “Hello Hagrid. Nice cottage.” He nodded slowly and his eyes darted towards the floor.

“Thank you. The, uh, table is new.” Emi nodded and clicked her tongue.

“It’s nice. Is that mahogany?” Hermione coughed to break the thick tension and Emi had never been more grateful.

“So, Hagrid, how are you doing?” Then the groundskeeper started bawling his eyes out, and Emi knew that she was in for a long ride. 

By the end of Hargid’s story, he was crying, Hermione was crying, and Emi kept rubbing her eyes and sniffling. “Oh my gosh, Hagrid.” Her voice cracked and she swallowed before continuing. “I’m so, so sorry. Draco’s a prat.” Hagrid turned to look at her and nodded.

“I apologize. I thought that ya were evil. Because of-” Emi cut him off before he could continue.

“Because of my dad.” Hagrid nodded and Emi sighed. “It’s alright. Happens a lot.” Hagrid looked down at his tea and there was silence once again.

They finished up their tea while listening to Hermione's woes, and the girls thanked Hagrid and left at around 5.

Emi snagged a muffin from the kitchen as she headed back to the Slytherin Dormitory and bit it as she walked in. Then she turned around and ran all the way to the hospital wing, earning odd looks in the hallway. She slid into the room and power-walked over to her desk where she pretended to be working. Pomfrey came out and gave her a sharp look before harrumphing and walking back into the office.

Emi let out a sigh of relief and massaged her temple, thinking about whether she should go visit Padfoot again or not. She eventually decided on not and asked Pomfrey if she could instead go get something from her room. The woman sighed waved her off, making the girl smile and run back to the dungeons.

-

Later that night Poppy Pomfrey went around checking on her patients. The two fifth years (one Ravenclaw and one Hufflepuff) were fast asleep, as they should be. She nodded and moved on to Emiliana. Poppy had mixed thoughts about the girl, on one hand she could be an incredible nurse, but on the other she got distracted easily and made mistakes that could be devastating for her future. Poppy sighed and pulled the curtains back ever so slightly, just to check if the girl was awake or not. She was fast asleep, which was new. She didn't usually fall asleep until much later, and Poppy usually had to scold her for being up so late. It wasn't until the girl flipped over that she could see what put her to sleep so early. Headphones were covering her ears and a black walkman was lying by her side.


	10. Ten - Slytherin

Emi woke up with a plan in mind and a song blaring in her ears. She got dressed quickly and scrambled to get her homework done, not even bothering to eat breakfast. She finished it quickly since she mostly just had easy stuff, and set off on a mission. Finding her dad.

Of course her first stop was Padfoot, because she had to recruit him for the job. He wouldn’t be doing anything, but it would be nice to have someone to talk to it about. He seemed incredibly interested in her cassette tape and kept pawing at it with a big doggy grin. Emi thought that it was adorable. “No! This is mine, you silly beast.” She laughed at the dog and rubbed his head, grinning when he flopped onto his feet and put his head in her lap. “Big baby.” She muttered and continued writing down secret entrances to the castle that she remembered from the Marauder’s Map.

-

Her next stop was Hermione, because, duh. Emi didn’t tell her the whole reason that she wanted to find him, but Hermione was either too smart or too nice to not ask, which was greatly appreciated. They worked together well, like an oiled machine with tons of levers and gears and pulleys. In fact, the only time that they butted heads and were actually in an argument (they got into petty arguments even day, maybe even every hour) was when Hermione warned her against Lupin. 

“You know, Emi, I think that Lupin is a werewolf.” Emi froze and closed her book slowly, turning to her friend.

“What makes you say that?”

“Well, he’s always sick around the full moon and Harry told me that Professor Snape brews him a potion each month.” Emi silently cursed Lupin for being so obvious. She didn’t mind, but a lot of people did.

“I don’t think that it’s anything to worry about.” She tried to brush it off and walk away but Hermione grabbed her arm.

“Emi, we need to tell Professor Dumbledore! There’s a werewolf in the school!” She was still whispering, but at a slightly higher pitch. Emi growled under her breath and pushed Hermione back into her chair.

“I know that there’s a werewolf in the school!” She hissed and Hermione’s face was almost comical. “I live with him! He’s my uncle! He hasn’t done anything wrong and he doesn’t need to be put away!” She calmed down slightly and gripped Hermione’s shoulders. “Please. He’s the only family that I have left.” She was literally begging at this point and Hermione looked incredibly worried for her. She agreed, albeit reluctantly, and the girls got back to their work, a small barrier between them that hadn’t been there before.

-

Her last and final stop was her Multi-House Group. Aka, the MHG. Aka, Luna and Ginny. Emi took a deep breath before entering the library, as if to dispel any feelings or emotions that she may be feeling towards one of the other members, and stepped into the designated meeting spot. “Luna! Ginny! My girls!” She whisper-yelled as she walked over to the table to avoid getting thrown out by Pince. Luna looked up from her issue of Quibbler and blinked owlishly at the girl, smiled, waved, and went back to the article. Ginny was not as forgiving. She narrowed her eyes as Emi sat down at the table and stared at the girl like she was reading her soul.

“You’re way too cheery for someone who just spent several days in lockdown.” Emi feigned ignorance and rolled her eyes.

“What? Pfft, girl you are out of your mind!” Ginny just hummed suspiciously and narrowed her eyes at the girl. Luna finally put her book down and turned to Emi, her head tilted like she was conducting a scientific experiment.

“You are acting unusually happy. Are you feeling any lightheadedness or seeing random spots out of the corners of your eyes? You might be being attacked by a swarm of Snigglewagers.” Emi and Ginny exchanged looks of confusion.

“Huh?” They asked together and Luna shook her head.

“Never mind. If they’d realized that someone knew that they were there then they would have flown off in a giant swarm.” Emi nodded slowly and shared another quick look with Ginny before laying down the plan. The girls agreed without any second thoughts and started working on the plan (They also didn’t ask the real reason, but she had a feeling that they both knew it anyways).

-

Her last and final stop was her dormitory. The girl went through a lot of weird looks and a snide remark or two from a few 4th years who thought that they were all that, but she finally entered her dorm. She took a deep breath in, relishing the fact that it smelled just like usual: a little too much “Accio Poof” by Andrea Caldonté that her roommate Rosie always sprayed before she went to classes. She made her way over to her bed and sat down, swaying back and forth slightly, enjoying it. She had darted into the room the last time and hadn’t gotten to appreciate the things she’d missed about it. Emi closed her eyes and let a breath out, relaxing for the first time in a while. Then she realized that she wasn’t alone. She peeked one eye open and saw Astoria sitting on the bed across from her, fumbling with her hands and avoiding looking at the girl.

“I’m sorry.” Astoria burst, and immediately she looked like a brick had just been lifted off of her chest. “My mother told me to stay away from you until this whole Sirius Black thing was over.” She shuddered at the name and Emi felt her lips make the sour lemon shape. “I hope that you can forgive me and we can be friends next year?” Emi blanched and swallowed harshly.

“I’ll think about it.” It was a cruel answer but it was a cruel question. She couldn’t be expected to just pick up where she left off in a friendship after months just because her dad was a killer. She had nothing to do with it and she had hoped that Astoria knew it. Apparently she was wrong. Astoria sighed in relief and smiled gratefully at the girl.

“Thank you.” Then she left. No hug, no “see you later”, no nothing. Emi was fine with it. She’d almost felt bad for the girl, but then she’d realized that she was only doing this so that her consciousness was clear, not because she cared about Emi.

She hadn’t worn her tie in weeks and her robes were never on her. She hadn’t felt like a Slytherin in a while, but now she was breaking out of her shell. Emi grabbed her tie and all of her emotions and threw them onto her shoulders. She had thought that it would be like the muggle movies and she would get a burst of confidence and realize who she was. She thought that all her problems would be answered, but immediately she broke down. She ran down the stairs and to the Whomping Willow, stumbling into things and people and feelings.

She miraculously reached Padfoot safely and collapsed onto the floor on her knees. At first the dog was happy to see her, but then he noticed her shoulders shaking and his tail drooped as he walked over. He licked her cheek and she rubbed her face, wiping him away in the process. He drooped and collapsed onto her lap, fully intending on letting her pet him and play with his ears until her tears dried up. She pushed him off of her lap and put her hands to her face, hyperventilating. At first Padfoot was hurt, but then he realized that she had cried herself into a panic and dragged a bucket over to her. She dry-heaved a couple times before hacking and crying some more, her breath still scattered. She caught a glimpse of the green and silver around her shoulders and her mind flashed to the moment that she told Remus that she was a Slytherin. She had waited until Christmas break to tell him, excited that he was wrong in his prediction for once. She had told him and for a brief second that she would remember until she was old and dying, a painting of emotions splashed across his face. It was first fear, then concern, then disappointment, then shame. Each one felt like a stab to the heart.

Emiliana threw up and Padfoot pulled the scarf off of her shoulders as she looked sadly into the bucket. She finally pushed it away and motioned for the dog to come over as she wiped her mouth with a piece of fabric that she’d torn off of her shirt. She took the tie from his mouth and sighed, rubbing his head. “Guess I’m not ready for everything that comes with these colors yet, am I, boy?” She scrunched up her face and shook her head, before sighing once again and running a hand through her hair, changing it to its original wavy black once again. “Not ready to stop running from myself either.” She chuckled even though nothing was funny and licked her cracked lips, the taste of vomit still fresh on her tongue. “Some,” she struggled. She could’ve said anything, she had so many options. Daughter, Slytherin, friend, girl, niece. The options were limitless, so she chose the most basic. “Some witch I am, eh? Can’t even look at two colors."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! So sorry for dying for a bit, but I'll definitely post more soon. I know that this isn't my longest chapter, but it's a pretty important filler. They've got a plan, Emi will be hurt more when Hermione exposes Remus in the Shrieking Shack, Luna and Ginny will be in more chapters, Astoria apologized and will probably be mentioned a bit more (although she won't show up until the second book or... the fourth book??? Also just to be clear I did move up Astoria's age by a year to give Emi some more friends), and Sirius found out that Emi's a Slytherin. That may b=not seem important but trust me, it'll be there.

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: These chapters will not always be this long, so, you know, don't get your hopes up. I'll try to update as much as I can, but I have ADHD and tend to get distracted easier and also just forget about things that I'm supposed to do on a weekly or daily basis (it'll be a nightmare when I have to take pills). So yeah, thank you for reading!


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